Madison Thomas is a junior at Missoula Sentinel High School with an idea on how to make school classrooms safer from an attack such as what happened in Newtown, Connecticut. Bear spray.

Thomas says she is part of a PBS media lab discussion group, and her classmates had recently been studying bears, so when the Sandy Hook School tragedy occurred, she thought bear spray might be an effective way to disable an attacker. She says the spray could be kept locked in the teacher’s desk, and could be linked to an alarm that would notify school and police officials of trouble in the classroom.

Some of her classmates don’t favor the idea, saying it would be too easy for a student to gain access to the spray and injure others, but Superintendent Alex Apostle is intrigued, and said he would contact Madison and share ideas on school safety.Apostle has said repeatedly he does not favor teachers being armed in Missoula schools.

Apostle is currently asking for community members to volunteer on several safety committees.

Sentinel Junior Madison Thomas

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